'John Taylor Gatto reveals many fascinating, and frightening, things'
and some frankly incredible IMO!

Maybe some American catter can provide the evidence that literacy amongst ALL groups in America went down in the US after the advent of compulsory schooling - until then I remain a sceptic

The view that public education contributes to rising literacy levels is shared by the majority of historians.

The ability to read did not necessarily imply the ability to write

'For example 'The 1686 church law (kyrkolagen) of the Kingdom of Sweden (which at the time included all of modern Sweden, Finland, and Estonia) enforced literacy on the population and by the end of the 18th century, the ability to read was close to 100 percent.
But as late as the 19th century, many Swedes, especially women, could not write'

According to wiki -
By the mid-18th century, the ability to read and comprehend translated scripture led to Wales having one of the highest literacy rates. This was the result of a Griffith Jones's system of circulating schools, which aimed to enable everyone to read the Bible in Welsh
Similarly, at least half the population of 18th century New England was literate, perhaps as a consequence of the Puritan belief in the importance of Bible reading.
By the time of the American Revolution, literacy (as defined above) in New England is SUGGESTED to have been around 90 percent.

The situation in England was very different; as late as 1841, 33% of all Englishmen and 44% of Englishwomen signed marriage certificates with their mark as they were unable to write; public education only became available in England in 1870, and even then on a limited basis

I think the testimonials of young illiterate children employed in the mines and 'satanic' mills alongside their parents I posted earlier in the thread speak for themselves

'Schools purposefully distort the learning process and intentionally slow down the students' learning so as to justify robbing them of 12 years of their lives'

Well again I can't speak for the US but maybe we have some educators from America in here that could verify this?

'But Gatto doesn't stop there. He also holds compulsory schooling accountable for the breakdown of the family

I noticed that! - BUT, he states, together with 55 hours of TV viewing a week
However he doesn't seem to be advocating switching off the set just closing down schools!

'Allow them to interact only with those of the same age and social class'

Well this was the opposite of my own experience of schooling where I mixed with children from very different classes from my own impoverished working class in a school of children from 11- 18 years of age.